Offbeat Oregon: Shyster lawyer planned to steal man’s land by shanghaiing him
In the late 1880s, in the wilds of southwest Washington near the mouth of the Cedar River, a “stump rancher” named Peter Norris developed a more-than-professional interest in the wife ...
Offbeat Oregon: Lives of old-time country doctors anything but boring
One of the most colorful and rewarding occupations in human history was that of a country doctor in the first half of the 20th century. By about 1900, breakthroughs in medical science had put ...
Offbeat Oregon: Portland's 'Temperance Crusade' collapsed when leaders got too preachy
As detailed in last week’s article, Portland’s legal authorities responded to the riot and street fight at the Webfoot Saloon on April 16, 1874, by arresting not the rioting brawlers, ...
Offbeat Oregon: Saloon riot led to charges, but not against the rioters
It was April Fools’ Day of 1874 when saloonkeeper Walter Moffett, proprietor of the Webfoot Saloon and sworn antagonist of the women of the Women’s Temperance Prayer League, escalated ...
Offbeat Oregon: Stubborn saloonkeeper refused to play nicely
Part two in a four-part series on the temperance riots of 1874. As March of 1874 drew to a close, there was a certain uneasiness among the businessmen of the liquor industry in Portland. A large ...
Offbeat Oregon: The story behind Portland's 'Temperance War of 1874'
The temperance movement, when it came to Portland in the early 1870s, really shouldn’t have taken anybody by surprise. What was surprising, though, was the form it took when it got ...
Offbeat Oregon: 'Uncle Joab' too blunt for Legislature's comfort
Back in 1859, the pioneer lawmakers of the very first Oregon State Legislature extended an invitation to Missionary Baptist circuit preacher “Uncle Joab” Powell, the most famous man of the ...
Offbeat Oregon: 'Uncle Joab' Powell was West's most famous pioneer preacher
About halfway between Crabtree and Lacomb, tucked into the side of a gentle hill, stands an old and somewhat austere-looking little white building known as Providence Pioneer Church. Offbeat Oregon Finn ...
Offbeat Oregon: Popular rancher’s disappearance may be state’s oldest cold case
The disappearance of sheep rancher Shorty Davis has got to be Central Oregon’s oldest cold case … there are older unsolved crimes, but it’s hard to come up with one that people are still ...
Offbeat Oregon: Filming of 'worst Western ever' was an unforgettable spectacle
If you’ve never heard “Harold Hecht’s ‘The Way West’” referenced as a legendary box-office bomb, that’s probably because of Michael Cimino. Cimino’s epic ...
Offbeat Oregon: War foiled survivalist’s quest to redeem reputation
On the morning of Tuesday, July 21, 1914, deep in the heart of the wilderness of the Siskiyous near the little hamlet of Holland, a naked man was soberly shaking the hand of an official-looking gentleman ...
Offbeat Oregon: Kids' shipwreck adventure couldn't happen today
The first day of summer vacation in 1930 was a real red-letter day for Washington High School students Stan Allyn and Wally Stenlake. Of course, every high-school kid looks forward to that first day of ...
Offbeat Oregon: Oregon's own patent-medicine sensation?
Ka-Ton-Ka cure-all actually produced in a Pennsylvania factory There was a time, in the late 1800s, when one of the most popular medicines in the country was a product painstakingly ...
Offbeat Oregon: Sting on secret saloon didn’t go well
In 1899, the spiritual leaders of Forest Grove had a problem: There was a serpent in their Garden of Eden. Forest Grove was founded by members of the Congregational Church — a denomination directly ...
Offbeat Oregon: Sordid love triangle gone bad ended in deadly car explosion
Late on the evening of April 21, 1955, 35-year-old Portland attorney Oliver Kermit Smith left the Columbia Edgewater Country Club and walked to his car. He was probably a little tipsy; there had been a ...